1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transaction control system employed for performing transactions such as in securities or foreign exchange, and to a center computer used in a transaction control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a market in which trading of some products is carried on, participants in the market present to all other participants transaction information (orders) for buying and/or selling. Participants who have received presentation of transaction information may respond to "buy" transaction information by indicating their intention to sell or may respond to "sell" transaction information by indicating their intention to buy. Thus, transactions are set up by a presenter of transaction information receiving such indications of intention (hereinbelow referred to as "transaction requests"). Under these circumstances, when transaction requests are issued by a plurality of participants, the participant who transmitted his transaction request earliest to the presenter of the transaction information is given the right to make the transaction, under the "time priority" rule.
In recent years, such transactions are being performed using transaction control systems utilizing communication circuits. The construction and operation of a prior art transaction control system is described below with reference to FIG. 8.
As shown in the drawings, a prior art transaction control system has a construction in which a center computer 300 and a plurality of terminal devices 310a and 310b are connected by communication circuits 120. Center computer 300 is equipped with a transaction information transmission unit 301 and a transaction request receiving unit 302. Also, each terminal device 310a and 310b is equipped with a transaction information receiving unit 311 and transaction request transmission unit 312.
The transaction information transmission unit 301 in center computer 300 transmits simultaneously to all terminal devices 310a and 310b transaction information signals corresponding to "sell" or "buy" transaction information which it receives as input.
Transaction information receiving unit 311 in each terminal device 310a and 310b receives transaction information signals from center computer 300 and outputs (display or printing) transaction information corresponding to the transaction information signals that it has received. The user of the terminal device 310a and 310b decides whether or not to issue a transaction request after studying the details of the transaction information which has thus been output. If he has decided to issue a transaction request, the user inputs a transaction request in respect of this transaction information at terminal device 310. Transaction request transmission unit 312 in terminal device 310 sends a transaction request signal corresponding to the transaction request that has been input to center computer 300.
On receiving the transaction request signals from the various terminal devices 310, transaction request receiving unit 302 in center computer 300 outputs transaction requests corresponding to these transaction request signals. Center computer 300 is set up such that a transaction contract is established with respect to the transaction request that is first received by transaction request receiving unit 302.
Now, in such a transaction control system, the various terminal devices 310 are arranged in various locations. The information transmission time between center computer 300 and the terminal devices 310 therefore takes respectively different values.
For example, if center computer 300 is provided in Tokyo while terminal device 310a and terminal device 310b are respectively provided in Osaka and London, if center computer 300 and terminal device 310b are connected by a communication circuit through the U.S. by a so-called Eastward link, the information transmission time between Tokyo and London is a few tens of milliseconds longer than the information transmission time between Tokyo and Osaka.
Consequently, terminal device 310a in Osaka receives transaction information sent from center computer 300 earlier than terminal device 310b in London. The user of terminal device 310a in Osaka can therefore get the transaction information earlier than the user of terminal device 310b in London.
Also, if a transaction request is sent simultaneously from terminal device 310a in Osaka and terminal device 310b in London, center computer 300 in Tokyo will receive the transaction request from terminal device 110a in Osaka first. That is, even if the input times at terminal devices 310 are the same, center computer 300 will identify the transaction request from the terminal device 110a in Osaka as having been issued earlier and so will process this transaction request with priority.
Thus, with the conventional transaction control system, users of terminal devices 310 whose information transmissions took some time to reach center computer 300 were at a disadvantage in dealing.